When thinking of Shakespeare’s great couples, it is often high drama that comes to mind: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Ophelia, Mark Antony and Cleopatra, even the Macbeths. Each of these pairings illuminated timeless aspects of relationships, from hope and confusion to struggles for power. Yet Shakespeare also crafted more lighthearted pairings — and chief among these is Beatrice and Benedick from Much Ado about Nothing.
In a play that engages with melodrama as much as romantic comedy — a major plot point is a scandalous lie about a young woman’s virtue — Beatrice and Benedick bring great verve and wit. Sharing strong wills and keen minds, they bicker constantly with each other; yet the dynamic exchanges let the audience know just how very much this couple belongs together. (Listen above to a definitive scene and read here!)
Beatrice and Benedick live on in any romantic comedy that plays out the ‘opposites attract’ model of courtship. A classic example of this is in the Doris Day and Rock Hudson comedies Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back, where the audience knows that the very traits that place the characters in conflict are the things that will bring them together.
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